1. Pole:
where would I get one?
Im going 4m above ground. How deep underground would I need?
How wide should the concrete slab be?
What thickness and type of metal should it be made from?
What is a decent price for this?

2. What do you attach the conduit to? Like the at the top, middle and back? Timber? Steel plates welded to the pole itself? Second to that, how do you attached the conduit to the steel/timber?

3. I assume there is no way to get it to a fine point at the top, right? 11x 20mm conduit is obviously pretty thick...

4. Is there a way, with dumb rgb, for the pixels to fun along one by one. So, start at the bottom and run one by one to the top? Or can only pixels do this?

5. If I went for pixels instead, can I include a pixel tree inside my LOR sequences that only have dumb rgb so far?

I too am building one this year for the first time.
I can tell you that I have done a lot of searching on the net looking at all the different ways of doing this.
As far as lights go, I am using dumb rgb's cable tied to plastic coated wire with a loop in one end and a turnbuckle at the other (so they can be individually tensioned at setup)
I am going to use a 24 channel controller so have 8 strings controlled, but am going to double up and have 16 strings. So 2 strings will be doing the same thing at any one time, I have put a plug and socket on the top end, so will configure them however they look best when I get them up.
The dumb strips cannot be controller up the string, it is the whole string only.
as far as working out the size, I am using 1 string length of pixels which is around 4m and using this calculator to work out the height width spacing etc. http://www.da-share.com/calculators/spiral-tree/
If you are going to concrete a pole into the ground, the usual rule of thumb is 1/4 of the height goes below the ground. This can vary depending on soil type. ie. soft sandy soil needs more support. It also depends on whether you are planning on using guy wires.
I have seen where people use PVC to make their pole, and for that I would recommend fairly good support wires, and would go for the thickest PVC you can get. I personally am using a 40mm steel pipe that I just happened to find at the dump. I am going to concrete a pvc pipe in the ground with a screw cap on top, so for 11 months of the year I can keep it clean and out of site.
I plan on building a ring top and bottom similar to ones I have seen on this site with hooks at the top and holes at the bottom, so I just slip the loop I made in the wire over the hook at the top, hook the turnbuckle in the hole at the bottom and tighten to take up any slack when all are up.
If you are using led strips, and you haven't attached them to the conduit yet, have a think about using packing straps to attach the strips to, then you can loop the top and bottom of the strip and attach to your tree, this will mean you can have a smaller top.

no idea how long they will last, but from what everyone has written on here in the past, even when they go yellow (rope lights in particular) they still give off the correct colours, as the LED is what produces the colour, not the plastic it is wrapped in.
On another note, I have been working on this some more today... 6 hours later and I am now up to 10 strings complete
Only 6 more to go
My hands started to ache after tying on over 300 cable ties, so I have moved on to re programming my dm102 controllers.

I used the nylon strapping eyelet punch with eyelets similar to ruprects mega tree guide. This method works great as the weight of the pixel sits on the back which keeps the strap rotated the right way eyelets are perfectly spaced and I have to say looks like a professional job. I made 50 straps with 42 eyelets. The had to be punched in the drill press first then eyelets attached. Be warned though I prob spent 30 hours making all the straps.

I tried the conduit method but it's hard to get enough tension to keep the conduit straight and rotated the right way on my 360 tree but a ray tree would be different if mounted to a frame.

Zip tieing to wire looks good too just make sure the pixels point up for added water protection.

I made my 2d ray tree for the first time last year. I didn't need to concrete it in the ground though. I was able to connect it to the balcony at the top. Strips are 3mtr and overall tree is 4.9mtr including star at the top. I used 30mm galvanised square tube sourced from Metaland. I used 30mm angle bar and attached my 20mm conduit to the angle and then cable tied my strip to the conduit. I used a 1mtr length of 20mm square tube and bashed that into the ground 600mm, then sat my centre over the top of it.

Anyone out there built a flat 2d mega tree with rgb strip on conduit/pvc that can help me?

Click to expand...

Ive done a 2d pixel tree using 5 mt strip fir the first tine this year. Ive used a timber A frame with cross braces then used conduit screwed on with half saddles. Zip tie the strips . There is a pic in another post in this section. The frame will stand on the ground and secured to the house roof.

I know Adski has a whole heap coming over and may have some to offload out of his shipment, its a cost effective way of keeping the strings evenly spaced and facing outwards and straight.

To help with sun damage, last year I used some CRC Plasticote 70 on my pixels after getting some advice from Len who had recently used it on all his LED strings, I must say the coating helped them from getting any sun damage and if sprayed behind would help with water ingress.